Robert Weingarten

May 11, 1991 | KATHY M. KRISTOF and VICTOR F. ZONANA, TIMES STAFF WRITERS, Kristof reported from Los Angeles and Zonana from New York

The ground shook the day after Robert Weingarten, then chairman of First Capital Holdings Corp., told a small group of insurance agents that E. F. Hutton Life Insurance would be renamed First Capital to reflect its newfound ownership by the fast-growing Century City firm. Now, four years later, some agents regret that they didn't recognize the Whittier earthquake as an omen.

May 11, 1991 | KATHY M. KRISTOF and VICTOR F. ZONANA, TIMES STAFF WRITERS, Kristof reported from Los Angeles and Zonana from New York

The ground shook the day after Robert Weingarten, then chairman of First Capital Holdings Corp., told a small group of insurance agents that E. F. Hutton Life Insurance would be renamed First Capital to reflect its newfound ownership by the fast-growing Century City firm. Now, four years later, some agents regret that they didn't recognize the Whittier earthquake as an omen.

Garamendi Sues Former Executives of Insurance Firm: Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi sued three former officers and directors of failed First Capital Life Insurance Co., charging them with wasting the assets of the San Diego-based insurer through a series of transactions meant to enrich its parent firm. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Robert Weingarten, Gerry R. Ginsberg and Philip A.

Business and civic leaders were welcomed into new volunteer posts of the 1988 Music Center Unified Fund Campaign at a reception Tuesday evening at Lawry's California Center. Campaign '88 hopes to raise $13 million for the Music Center's resident companies: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, The Joffrey Ballet, the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Music Center Education Division. Last year's goal was $12.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit against Michael Milken that contended that the former junk bond dealer caused the collapse of Los Angeles-based First Capital Holdings, an insurance concern now in bankruptcy proceedings. U.S. District Judge Morris E. Lasker ruled that the civil complaint filed earlier this year against Milken by First Capital shareholders failed to make specific allegations about how Milken caused First Capital's losses.

"I see this more as a philosophical exhibition than a history of space and flight," says Stephen White. He's talking about "Skydreamers: A Saga of Air and Space," an expansive show of photographs and related materials — largely drawn from his collection — that's opening Friday at the Autry National Center in Griffith Park and runs through Sept. 4. "I don't know much about the technical aspects of aviation," he says. "What interests me is how photography interacts with what we call progress.

First Capital Holdings Corp., the Los Angeles insurance holding company whose two main units have been seized recently by insurance regulators, on Monday reported a huge $770-million first-quarter loss and disclosed that it is headed for bankruptcy court. Neither the sizable loss nor the disclosure that the company will be filing soon for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code were unexpected.

Century 21, whose motto is "It's as good as done," has found that getting things done can be daunting when the impenetrable Soviet bureaucracy gets involved. The Irvine real estate chain dumped its trademark bright-gold blazers earlier this year for less conspicuous camel-shaded ones. The 80,000 or so gold jackets were to be collected from its real estate agents and shipped to the needy in Soviet Armenia. Why Armenia?